Startups to watch: Shopmatic, Element AI, Pay2Home and more

Shopmatic raises $5.7m in funding

Shopmatic, a Singapore- based e-commerce company providing a platform for merchants and individual entrepreneurs to sell online, has raised $5.7 million in funding.

The round was led by venture capital firm ACP and Spring Seeds Capital, the investment arm of Spring Singapore.

Shopmatic will be using the funds to expand into other markets in Indonesia, the Philippines and the Middle East. The company already has a presence in India, Singapore and Hong Kong.

"We have witnessed tremendous growth in merchants leveraging our platform with monthly growth rates in excess of 40 per cent," said Shopmatic chief executive Anurag Avula. The firm, founded in December 2014, has also built data analytics and insights into its platform to help sellers be more effective in reaching out to their target audience.

Canadian AI firm to open S'pore office

Canada-based artificial intelligence firm Element AI is setting up an office in Singapore after raising a US$102 million (S$141 million) round of funding.

The Singapore office, set to open in the second half of the year, will serve as its South-east Asian hub.

The company helps firms use artificial intelligence to transform their businesses, by building customised applications that are easy to integrate into existing processes. "Singapore has a growing AI presence in the region, especially in the field of fintech, and it also has a sizeable talent pool," the company said.

Element AI previously opened an office in Japan, its first in Asia.The region is also a major source of funding for the company - both China's Tencent Holdings and South Korea's Hanwha Investment are significant investors.

New seed fund picks four S'pore start-ups

A new seed fund, co-created by a wealth management company and a start-up curator, has picked four Singapore start-ups to receive capital.

The Javelin Startup-O Victory Fund is a collaboration between Javelin Wealth Management and Startup-O, a Singapore- based curation platform that helps promising tech start-ups connect with seed capital and experts.

The start-ups they have chosen are Impress.AI, Whizpace.com, Serv.sg and HackerTrail. The Javelin Startup-O Victory Fund is targeting to invest up to US$500,000 in three to five start-ups every quarter. The fund serves high-net-worth investors and family offices across Asia.

Pay2Home wins AustCham award

Local fintech start-up Pay2Home bagged the AustCham Business Excellence Award for most outstanding performance in its field last Friday.

The accolade comes after the recent launch of its 24-hour multilingual money transfer machines (MTMs).

The MTM is an interactive self-service kiosk, allowing clients to access multiple remittance services at their convenience. They can transfer money, get foreign exchange rates, pay for transactions using bank accounts and check their transaction history, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.